* Sen. Bill Brady claimed today that an alleged murderer had been released too early from prison. Jonathan Phillips was charged with murder last month after being released from prison in November.

Sen. Brady claimed that under the state’s Truth in Sentencing law, Phillips was released from prison seven months too early.

But a reporter with the Associated Press countered repeatedly that the AP had looked into the Phillips case and determined that he was not set free before the normal day-for-day good time release which any other inmate could get. The scandal sparked last year by AP reporting was that the DoC was releasing prisoners 60 days earlier than the usual good time program.

Brady also claimed today that he could not obtain the list of prisoners who had been released, but reporters pointed out that the information was already available. Brady was joined in the presser by House GOP Leader Tom Cross and Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno. The legislators unveiled legislation requiring the state to post photos and background information on all prisoners released early.

**UPDATE x1 ** 3:20 p.m. — Sen. Brady talked to reporters after the Senate Executive Committee unanimously approved his early release proposal. He said he plans to stay in the Senate through the campaign…

Brady is just not ready for prime time, and this was at a Springfield presser. Chicago media will eat him alive. It was amusing to watch Radogno’s eyes during that presser. Very revealing. Brady needs to fire his researcher (if he has one). He also has at least be conversant on an issue before he walks up to a podium. A disaster for him. Like I said before, Quinn just needs to let Brady keep talking and he will be fine.

Carl, Rich Whitney needs to get out more, its not all the media’s fault. He could send out responses to some of this within a day I would think, but he doesn’t work in the capitol and isn’t there every day to respond immediately to stuff like Rich shows all the time. Reporters will never get in the habit of asking him for a response either, I don’t presume.

Brady was horrible. Sad even. Evidence more choices would be a good thing in 2010.

25,000 valid sigs in 90 days starting March 22. The times are ripe for a moderate independent to bust through the two party political games in Illinois.

===But a reporter with the Associated Press countered repeatedly that the AP had looked into the Phillips case and determined that he was not set free before the normal day-for-day good time release which any other inmate could get. The scandal sparked last year by AP reporting was that the DoC was releasing prisoners 60 days earlier than the usual good time program. ===

So the AP can’t be wrong and is this same AP that stopped the counting of the votes for the governor race when they found out Brady might win?

Quinn is running this state into bankruptcy and can’t even fund his current budget more then 20% but they question Brady about his 10% cut now we have a bunch of criminals running the streets attacking and murdering people that Quinn let out early and some of them question Brady like he is the criminal.

The whole idea behind truth in sentencing, as I understand the strategy, is to deny day-for-day good time credit from those inmates who commit murder and other heinous crimes and, in doing so, ensure that they actually service 85 to 100 percent of their sentences.

So, if in fact this guy was subject to truth in sentencing, then he would NOT be eligible for the good time credit that other inmates are eligible for.

The first thing we need to know here is whether the guy was subject to truth in sentencing. If he was, then this whole back and forth about him getting out based on good time credit is a non issue. He would not enjoy such credit if in fact he was subject to truth in sentencing.

More importantly, what the heck is Bill Brady thinking? He appears in the Blue Room for his highest profile public appearance since the election (unless there’s one I’m missing), and then proceeds to make blatant political accusations about the incumbent governor, and yet he does not appear to have a grasp on basic facts.

Is this guy subject to truth in sentencing, or not? This is pretty basic stuff, and surely the likely GOP gubernatorial nominee knows a lawyer who could figure that out with five minutes of research. Or doesn’t he?

Is there a public list of inmates released early, or isn’t there? Brady said repeatedly that the governor needs to come clean and release the list, and yet two reporters said the list is already available, prompting Radogno to retort that maybe the one available already isn’t sufficiently user friendly.

Oh yes, Vanilla Man. We’d hate to have reporters do anything but be polite stenographers, simply writing down whatever the person at the podium spews out, even if the reporter knows it to be untrue.

Others of us think that’s one of the media’s big problems: he said/she said journalism that gives equal weight to all assertions, however ridiculous or false.

Note to journalists and reporters: you’re publications aren’t dying just because of the lousy economy and the Internet, they are dying because too often there is no value added. I applaud this AP reporter for actually adding value - doing real-time fact checking by challenging a clearly not-read-for-prime-time Brady - and wish more would follow his lead. In fact, the reporter did Brady a big favor by showing how unprepared he is for the stage he’s on now.

===Quinn is running this state into bankruptcy and can’t even fund his current budget more then 20% but they question Brady about his 10% cut now we have a bunch of criminals running the streets attacking and murdering people that Quinn let out early===

Where does one begin?

1. The Governor supported a tax increase. The GA did not. So how you saddle him with this completely is beyond me.

2. Criminals running the streets and attacking and murdering people? Is this a widespread phenomenon that I am unaware of? Is it safe to go outside? Did the Governor personally unlock all of the jail cells and direct the formerly incarcerated to the nearest murder victim? I’m scared!

3. Some of them question Brady like he is a criminal? The released prisoners? They do Springfield pressers?

4. When did the AP start counting votes instead of REPORTING on vote counts? I was not aware of their statutory authority.

but at least all of our problems cannot be traced back to bill brady the way they can with Quinn, who as we all know gave us the cutback amendment which led to speaker madigan and all the problems that we see before us today.

one wishes quinn would just do the admirable thing and bow out of illinois political life forever citing/acknowledging that he is at fault for all that is wrong here. in fact he should’ve never run in the primary. he really put us in the trickbag, but if there is any consolation it is that he is being punished with all of the rest of us, thanks to mike madigan. even still i don’t think quinn should be rewarded with a full-term of his own for two reasons 1. cutback and 2. his time as governor hasn’t been good due to his poor performance.

Brady doesn’t perform very well here. However, the AP reporter isn’t really listening to what Brady says either. He picks up pieces of Brady’s statement and then interjects in the middle of his answer. That’s bad form in my book.

Ask the question. Let Brady answer. Then ask a follow up question. Why does the reporter insist on interjecting in the middle of an answer?

WCW - Will you ever stop spouting your insanity on this site? You defend Madigan one day, then denounce him the next. Will you just comment on the SJ-R site or something and give everyone here a break?

I’ve got an idea. They should find a malfunction somewhere in the votes for the Governor and Lt Governor primaries and do them over in June or July. Just re-run the primary for those two office. We might see all four winners lose if we could have a do-over.

1. The Governor supported a tax increase. The GA did not. So how you saddle him with this completely is beyond me.—obamarama

oh come on obamarama. quinn did not go about securing support for his tax increase the right way and that’s why he did not get. it wasn’t until after the spring session officially ended or maybe it was right before it was due to end that he realized that he better meet with legislators and talk directly to them, rather than at them, about the need for the tax increase. he also did not talk to madigan in the first place. without having a specifics about his budget address, it’s likely that he will decide to cower and run away from his tax increase push despite last week saying in effect that he didn’t care what lawmakers and dem leaders thought about it not having a chance—he was gonna press on with it. i hope i’m wrong. i hope he does fight because he badly needs to exhibit leadership for once and for all. no doubt his budget is still in the process of being crafted on a whim, despite being overdue by two weeks. with him decisions are fluid and subject to change at any moment—even while he is giving a decision.

seriously you saw the Harold Washington tape. based on what you’ve seen of quinn as a governor, harold wasn’t lying was he?

==Brady is just not ready for prime time, and this was at a Springfield presser. Chicago media will eat him alive.==

I doubt the Chicago press corps would’ve nailed him on something like that. When it comes to policy, the statehouse reporters are as tough as you get. When it comes to following some staffer down the street with a camera, Chicago’s got the upper hand.

I doubt the Chicago press corps would’ve nailed him on something like that. When it comes to policy, the statehouse reporters are as tough as you get.
—————–

I agree on the basic policy premise, but I mean on going after a guy in a presser when he starts to stumble..I’ve witnessed some interesting ones over the years. I will grant you the current Chicago press corps is no where near the old time Chicago press corps.

STL… my mention of cutback here has more to do with the thread discussion the other day in which so many commenters attacked/cited Mike Madigan for being the problem. it was the thread about madigan and cullerton hoping to do a stopgap budget to the dem party through the nov. elections.

after reading countless negative comments about madigan it occured to me that all of those people should really be angry with the person who created the “monster,” whom they overlooked.

madigan technically is not at fault. his thing is power. it always has been. he has amassed a fortune in political capital and uses it as he sees fit/accordingly. technically he’s not wrong for that. he’s judtified in using the means considering what his ends are. i agree that the ends make him happy at the expense of everyone else, but whose fault is that? certainly not his. so that’s why I am citing quinn as the person who is ultimately at fault.

What part of violating UN mandates and cease fire treaties don’t you get? This didn’t happen 100 years ago. Perhaps you aren’t old enough to have been there when all this happened and you are just reading the wrong history book.

Brady has made a career out of pointing fingers, blaming, and attacking without merit. He continues to make disengenuous statements, because he thinks he can mislead the masses with hyperbole and fear-mongering. He’s the Republican version of Blagojevich: Grab a headliner issue, adopt it as your, identify a demon, then ride in on the white horse to save the day. Good for the AP reporter for hitting the BS button…when you are a gubenatorial nominee, you have to do your homework and keep your verbiage tight. He’s going to continue to get called out if continues this rancor.

Out of courtesy for others, and Rich most importantly, I regret tossing out Iraq as the most obvious outcome when reporters become stenographers. I did not mean to hijack this thread, and thus will not respond to you.

Except to say that I am glad we got all of those WMDs out of Saddam’s hands before he nuked us. It would have been like 9/11 times a thousand. Or something.

Brady is hoping to find a Willie Horton in the so called group of 2700 early releases. He was expecting the press to do his dirty work for him, but they didn’t. This is what you can expect from Brady, throw some half-baked claim out there and see if it sticks.
It is nice to see all the Brady apologists trying to defend this over achiever!

And I will also not hijack the thread. Let’s just say there have been MANY times when reporters simply repeat what’s been said by politicians with no challenge and no fact check. If you don’t like Iraq, it’s happening again on the budget.

And I also agree that statehouse reporters are generally far more knowledgeable than Chicago reporters. Frankly, other than Carol Marin, Chicago reporters are not the most persistent or knowledgeable lot when it comes to these matters.

Tom Joad, I don’t see any Brady apologists in this thread defending him. Trying to change the topic away from Brady’s lack of knowing what the heck he is talking about, yes, but no defending Brady on this thread.

Speculation is that Asst. Director Benos will be pushed out the door with the Director of Corrections. Hey BRADY, hire her to keep you straight on Correctional policy. The shame of it is if Quinn would have listened to her then he wouldn’t be in this situation. Bringing in an out of state Director to run the ILLINOIS Department of Corrections was a huge mistake. The experts on good time, early release reside with the staff in IDOC who have years of service. Quit slapping them in the face and ask the people who know the business. Ask any veteran administrator the history of good time and they would readily tell you that the train was derailed by the Director…the sad thing is it was naivety of Illinois statutes and politics.

Oh and don’t get me started on the lack of bed space due to this bungle and THE TEN TOP ADMINISTRATORS (making over 100,000 a year) who have been brought into to babysit the administrator. Brady….has plenty of fodder for campaign commercials. Let the games begin.

it ocurs to me that the best thing for Quinn is for Brady to take the early release goodtime/issue which looked bad; but push it using bad and unsupportable facts so as to completly water down and blunt the real issue by placing it behind a sham one.

So, I read the story and went to the DOC website to find this info that’s so readily available. I eventually found a PDF of about 1,700 names with how much time was served, but it didn’t show what they were conficted of, where they were or the date they were released. Is there something out there I just overlooked? I also seem to remember some mention of the number 2,700. So where are the other 1,000?

If this is all about getting info to the public, I think Brady has a point, even if he didn’t say it as clearly as he should have.

=======I also seem to remember some mention of the number 2,700. So where are the other 1,000?=====

Yes, Brady (several times) says 2,700 inmates, but from all the AP coverage of this that I’ve seen, the number of inmates released under MGT Push was about 1,700, so it looks like Brady really needs to do better research.

For Aggrivated Veh Highjacking to be Truth-in-Sentencing, the judge must have deemed “Great Bodily Harm”. For the sentence to only be 6yrs., most likely the judge did not do that. I don’t think Mr. Brady has any of the facts accurate. Was any research done by Mr. Brady before making this rediculous accusation???

doc, oh, yeah, hire her, cause the Blago taint of so many years would just wash right off if she worked for a Republican. come on.

Brady may be inartful at what he is doing, but he’s using buckshot to hit a teeny target, hoping somehow he will hit.
the more he brings the issue up, the more it is discussed.
Quinn needs to make sure he can stop the discussion cold every time and nail anyone who did the wrong thing at IDOC.

Quinn needs to nail down what was done, and what is done. thankfully, he has a good person involved in evaluating things, David Erickson. David can advise on the process and make sure the bad guys stay in. the confusing thing is that there are still prisoners in who fall under many incarnations of the law, not just the current way of prosecuting, sentencing, and incarcerating. it’s not so very long ago that Richard Speck was in because the old death penalty went bye bye. making a list, checking it twice, and three times, and yet again to know the rules to avert danger.

Thanks to videos provided in Capitol Fax, it must be apparent to all that Sen. Brady is quite the eloquent candidate. More importantly,he seems to have his priorities in order regarding the issues: Gays, dogs and cats.

Brady has a point - I don’t care if he didn’t speak as eloquently as some thought he should. I looked on DOC website and found the list and it is very bland. Doesn’t even tell me how many years they were sentenced. Letting some of these criminals out early is very scary and we are thinking of buying a gun.

Brady just needs to sit back, be reasonable, and not worry. Quinn is a loose cannon and will self-destruct multiple times between now and November. And the Blago trial will be equivalent to millions in free advertising. Brady: just cool it and let it happen.

Goebbels called it “the big lie.” Say it often and and say it loud, and soon enough, it will come to resemble the truth. Brady and the Republicans, (with help from Hynes), have been working this early release non-scandal until it has become “the truth.” Sure, Brady is a fool, but now even a critical reporter is taking this “scandal” for fact even though Brady’s particular example is wrong. When will this entire charade of a scandal be exposed for what it is: a lie intended to prey upon people’s worst fears and prejudices?